Making Data Work For You - The Data Assemblyline

Editor's Notes

• #4: The Agenda for Today.
• #5: How do you know you are making a difference, if you don’t measure the change? What change do you want to see? How will you know when you get there? Planning the Data Process – involve stakeholders - Be sure to Involve stakeholders in the process. Example: Include staff, executive director, executive board, clients and the public in planning the data process. Ask these important questions: Who are the end-users? (program staff, executive board, funders, etc) What is the end-use? (direct policy, allocate resources, seek funding, annual report) Is the data relevant to them!!!
• #6: How do you know you are making a difference, if you don’t measure the change? What change do you want to see? How will you know when you get there? Planning the Data Process – involve stakeholders - Be sure to Involve stakeholders in the process. Example: Include staff, executive director, executive board, clients and the public in planning the data process. Ask these important questions: Who are the end-users? (program staff, executive board, funders, etc) What is the end-use? (direct policy, allocate resources, seek funding, annual report) Is the data relevant to them!!!
• #7: You want the information to be USEFUL!!!! What format will you be using this data? In a report that nobody reads?
• #8: More important questions What data will be most relevant to our program evaluation? What data is missing? Does that data exist somewhere else (another agency, government, etc)? Any data missing goes on your DATA DEVELOPMENT AGENDA. Remember- Who is your audience? Include your stakeholders in this process. If you could know three things about the work you do that you don’t know, what would they be?
• #10: Checking back in…What did people say?
• #11: The Agenda for Today.
• #12: What people do you have? - Who are your team members? How are they involved? - What are their responsiblities currently and how will they change going forward? Do they have “will” & “skill”? - Get buy-in (helps to include them from the beginning) and also recognize when you need to avoid nay-sayers Is it in their job description? - is “data” explicit to their job? Is should be!
• #13: More important questions What data will be most relevant to our program evaluation? What data is missing? Does that data exist somewhere else (another agency, government, etc)? Any data missing goes on your DATA DEVELOPMENT AGENDA. Remember- Who is your audience? Include your stakeholders in this process. If you could know three things about the work you do that you don’t know, what would they be?
• #14: Sometimes it’s a balance between funders needs and programming needs. Hopefully, with conversations and time, these needs can be aligned but it can be a balancing act. We recognize that you are being pulled in multiple directions.
• #15: One place where all the indicators are kept track of either in excel or google docs. MealsHow many meals do we serve?Kitchen Calendar#meals/month ClinicsHow many clinics do we do?Mobile Van Calendar#clinics/month How many patients see a doctor?Doctor Log Sheet#patients/month Case ManagementHow many clients receive case management?Internal DatabaseTotal # clients
• #16: List the sources of data - where does your data come from?
• #17: Other examples of Data Sources
• #18: List the sources of data - where does your data come from?
• #19: Next we will talk about Data Collection.
• #20: From the data audit you will get clear about what data you already collect and how versus what you would like to collectj--- the data on your Data Development Agenda
• #21: Not All Performance Measures are Created Equal What is the simplest way to collect the data? Low/cost or no-cost. Do you have data source that could also collect the information you want? Make sure you have buy-in. Collect consistent and standardized data. - Electronic data collection tools can be very efficient and reduce errors.- Standardize
• #22: What don’t you know about your work that would help make a bigger impact?
• #23: Idealware - great resource to help nonprofits choose tools NTEN- Nonprofit Technology Network Techsoup
• #24: Here are some of the advantages of using structured survey applications as input tools.
• #25: Check-in- Do you have a data development agenda? What’s on it?
• #26: Next we will talk about Data Collection.
• #27: What should you backup: The simple answer is, “everything.” Or at least, everything that’s critical, valuable, irreplaceable, or important to your organization.
• #28: The Dashboard can be an effective way to reduce frustration and confusion. The dashboard is an inventory of your data sources with the website link, the username, password, and any notes about what the website is used for. This is especially useful is there is staff turnover or staff at multiple sites.
• #29: Don’t mix up your data types.
• #33: Here’s the same table with out the averages. You can put those in another tab on your excel spreadsheet.
• #35: Look at what other people are doing. Go to a training at American Evaluation Association or Burlington College online Get buy-in from your stakeholders File naming- spreadsheets of data with no context. (include: Project, Data Source, Your Name, Final or Edits, Date) Personally identifiable information- you need to have someway to keep that data secure If you have lots of data passing hands, it can be great to have “code book” or a place to describe what each indicator means, where it comes from and if there are different values for them.
• #37: Next we will talk about Data Collection.
• #38: Do you have the skill set to accomplish this? Does the person analyzing know what the end-users want to know? Is average number of clients per month more useful than total number clients or do they need both? Create a Schedule ( second staff meeting of every month we will look at the data). Pre/Post Comparative Trend Qualitative Analysis Tools for analysis Excel SPSS
• #39: Whyi using survey tools can save you a lot of time! A lot of tools like lime survey, survey monkey, google analytics have a built-in reporting function. Look at what they have already, you can save yourself a lot of headache if what they offer is sufficient for your needs.
• #40: Does the data make sense? – Have more than one person look at the results.
• #41: Next we will talk about Data Collection.
• #42: Here are some reasons that you will use data in your work.
• #43: For Decision making--- Who will be using the data?- What process will be driven by the data? Data Visualization/Presentation is important. Graphs with narrative and quotes is more powerful than just numbers alone. Give then numbers context. Keep it simple!
• #44: On Facebook, videos are shared 12x more than links and text posts combined. Photos are liked 2x more than text updates.
• #45: Tips for Visualizing Data: Above all else show data Maximize the data-ink ratio Erase non-data-ink Erase redundant data-ink Revise and edit
• #46: Tips for Visualizing Data: Above all else show data Maximize the data-ink ratio Erase non-data-ink Erase redundant data-ink Revise and edit
• #48: Comparing these to methods of visualization. Each are ok. Consider your audience. Do you want to share the table on facebook? Maybe the table is ok for internal work. I would recommend make a bar chart out of these numbers. Then if you want to share publicly you can visualize the data like above.
• #49: Think of creating graphics as showing the world what you do and why you do it, in a compelling, interesting and easy-to-share way! If you want to know more about visualization, then you can watch Lauren Glenn’s show.
• #50: There is no one way to measure or evaluate a program or organization. There is no “Gold Standard”. You will continue to adapt your evaluation to meet your needs. There is a distinction between research and evaluation and that comes from the rigor of the methods. For evaluation, you need to decide what is important to you and how you will be using the data. -ADD START TODAY!
• #51: All of this takes communication. Leadership needs to be invested and willing to invest and above all this is not an automatic process, there are people that need to be include and involved.
• #53: The source for